24 Weeks

•How far along are you? 24 Weeks

•How big is baby?: Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at just over a pound.  He's almost a foot long (the size of an ear of corn).

•Maternity clothes: I've made the switch over to all maternity pants now. I'm still able to wear a combo of maternity and non-maternity shirts though.

•Gender: BOY!! Evan Michael Baxter.

•Sleep?:  I haven't been sleeping well at all this week.  :(  I just can't get comfortable and have started getting heartburn when I lay down at night.  Hoping this passes soon.

•Best moment this week?: Going to my dr.'s appt today and getting to see Evan.  He's definitely still a boy.  :)  And from the pictures we got, his profile looks exactly like Em's!  I have a feeling we're going to have another baby that looks like Shawn.  Also, Em has started randomly coming up to me and giving baby Evan kisses (she kisses my tummy).  It makes me so happy when she does this.

•Movement?: Tons of movement!

•Food cravings?: Bananas

•Food aversions?: Plain grilled chicken

•What I miss: Maybe just being able to easily get up and down on the floor to play with Em. But other than that, just trying to enjoy this pregnancy!

•Symptoms: My back has started hurting when I'm on my feet for a while and carrying Emily has started to get more difficult because of my belly. A new symptom started this week. . .the dreaded heartburn.  I only get heartburn when I'm preggo, thank goodness because it's awful.  It got really bad towards the end with Emily, so I know it's just a matter of time before it gets worse.  Pepcid is going to become my new best friend!  

•Milestone:  No big milestone this week.

A little bit of an update on my dr. appt today.  I got a sono today to check on Evan's kidneys.  The right one is now completely normal (yay!), but the left one is still dilated.  It has, however, gone down some (from 6.8 mm to 6.5 mm - I read online that a normal kidney should measure 5 mm).  So at least it's headed in the right direction.  Also, during my sono they also measured the length of my cervix and it had shortened more than the dr. would have liked to have seen.  It's still in the normal range, however, I went from being at the high end of the normal range to now being at the low end of the normal range in 4 weeks (43 mm to 31 mm).  So my dr. requested I make an appt. next week with a perinatologist just to get a second opinion about this issue and also Evan's kidney.  So I scheduled that for next Wed.  In the meantime, my dr. told me to limit my activity and lay down as much as possible.  I'm hoping that's all that needs to be done in order to stop it from shortening.  The last thing I want is to have to go on bed rest or even worse, go into pre-term labor.  I also have an appt. with my dr. in 3 weeks, instead of the normal 4, to get another sono.  So while 1 positive of all this has been that we get to see a lot of Evan, it was a bit more to take in this morning than I was expecting.  I'm just trying really hard not to worry about it (of course that's easier said than done).  Oh and just for my records. . .Evan weighed 1 lb, 8 oz. today.  He fell in the 59% for size, so pretty close to average.  And my belly measured right on track for being 24 weeks. 

No progress on the nursery.  Although now that we got another confirmation that it was a boy, Shawn will probably start painting his room in the next week or 2.

And of course Em wanted to be included in the belly pics again. She's got it down now. :)

 She was sticking out her tummy in this picture.

Happy 34th Birthday Shawn

Even though Shawn's birthday wasn't until today, we spent the majority of this weekend celebrating it.  Saturday afternoon, after Em woke up from her nap, we headed to Burleson to celebrate Shawn's birthday with his mom and brother.

Shawn's dad and sister came over late Sunday morning and we all went to Dodie's for lunch to celebrate Shawn's birthday with them. After lunch we all came home and they visited while I ran out to the mall. After Em woke up from her nap, we went to my parents house to once again celebrate Shawn birthday.

To celebrate Shawn's birthday tonight he decided he wanted to go to Blue Goose for dinner.  He picked up Em from school and I met them over there right after work. 

Since Shawn gets up so early and leaves the house before Em is even up, I made him wait until tonight to open his gift from me and Em.  My favorite gifts to give him are something that he would love to have, but probably wouldn't go buy himself.  Since he needed clothes at Christmas, I didn't get to do that for him then, so I was excited for another gift opportunity for him.  It took a little more thinking than usual to come up with a gift, but finally I decided on a new knife set.  Most of you know that Shawn is the cook in the house and according to him, good knives are very important.  We had gotten a set for our wedding, but they were starting to rust and dull.  So after doing some research I found a new set that I hoped he would love.   I offered to pick up some cupcakes on my way home too, but he passed since we had brought cake home from his mom's on Saturday.

And of course I had to get a picture of the birthday boy with his biggest fan.  Happy 34th Birthday!!  Hope it was a great one!

Early Push Gift

Shawn surprised me with my push gift. .  .a little early.

A little background. . .a few weeks ago we got an awesome coupon in the mail from Coach.  Shawn had asked if there was anything I needed or wanted.  I said not really, but I would go look.  It was still a lot of money to spend, so I decided not to get anything, but just casually mentioned it would be nice in the future to have a bigger purse for the days I don't want to lug around the diaper bag.  Whenever we take Em somewhere, I still like to take snacks for her along with a diaper and some wipes, but she really doesn't need a whole diaper bag anymore.  Well several weeks went by and I really didn't think anything of it.  Until I beat Shawn home yesterday (this only happens once in a blue moon - but he had a work event to go to) and found a package on the door step.  Of course I looked and saw that it was from Coach, but decided not to say anything to him.  He didn't get home until after I was asleep, but I thought he would say something about it this morning, but never did.  Tonight when I got home, he asked what that package was in the office and I just smiled and asked if I should open it.  He figured since I already knew where it was from, I might as well get my push gift early.  So here it is.  .  .

I'm very excited about it!  It's exactly what I had in mind.  Even though I saw the package sooner than I should have, I was still very surprised.  He did really good!

Conversations With Emily

I picked Em up from school today and we had the funniest conversation. 

It started while we were still inside her school.  We were talking to one of her old teachers when she said this. . .
Em: It's my birthday tomorrow.
Me: It's not your birthday tomorrow. Have you been telling everyone that?
Em: Yes

And this is how it continued once we got in the car. . .
Em: It's my birthday in 2 min.
Me: It's not your birthday for 8 more months. It's your friends Scarlett's birthday this week.
Em: I like Scarlett. I like all my girls. I don't like bad boys.
Me: I'm glad you like Scarlett.
Em: You don't like bad boys either Mommy.
Me: No, I don't like bad boys either Em.
Em: I like Santa Claus. Me and Scarlett are going to see Santa Claus tomorrow.
Me: hmmm...Now you're just talking crazy Em. I think Santa is back in the north pole. I'm pretty sure you won't be seeing Santa tomorrow.
Em: No, you're talking crazy mama.

Thursday Randoms

It's a slow week in our house, so thought I would just do a random post today.

• Lately Em loves to watch Caillou on our ipad and play games on my phone.  It's crazy to me that my 2 year old knows how to fully navigate around my iphone and our ipad.  She knows where her folder is on my phone and exactly which games are what.  Here are the fun games she plays.  Her recent fave is the PBS player.  She likes watching Curious George on there.  

• I ordered my second blog book last week.  It will be the one for 2011.  It shipped on Monday, so I'm hoping to get it soon.   I love having these and I hope Emily and Evan love having them one day too!

• I decided to go through some of Em's old baby clothes to pull out any gender neutral ones that we had.  I didn't realize until I started going through the bins, just how many clothes Em has!! I think there are 10 storage bins just for clothes size 0-12 months!  Wow!  Here's just a taste.  This is probably only a quarter of the clothes in the attic.






• My SIL also recently gave Em clothes for spring/summer and some fall/winter ones too.  I went through them to pull out the spring and summer stuff.   Now that Evan's room can't be our storage room, I had to find somewhere else to store them until it's time for her to wear them.  We are sooo thankful to have 2 nieces that pass down a TON of cute clothes to us! (not to mention toys, lots of baby stuff, etc.)

• Em's sheets arrived this week for her big girl bed.  I was hoping the quilt would go on sale right after the sheets, but it doesn't look like that's happening, so I think I might just have to suck it up and go buy it at full price.  I'd like to get Em's room done, so then I can focus on Evan's room once his bedding and furniture come in.



• Evan's wardrobe is starting to come along.  It will definitely not be anywhere close to his sister's.  But I figure a boy can get away with less clothes.  It's nice having blue stuff in the house.  :)

• My cousin Cameron baby-sat for Em on Saturday so Shawn and I could go out to dinner last weekend for V-day.  We went to Capital Grille and it was sooo yummy and the service was excellent.   The whole time we were there we were referred to as Mr. and Mrs. Baxter (I mean from the valet to the waiter).  Shawn ate this up.  While we were gone, Em had a blast with Cameron.  I'm so thankful we now have 2 babysitters that we can use (Cam and Em's teacher, Chelsea).  They are both so great with her and Em loves to have them come.  Plus it's nice to not have to rely on our parents to watch her.

• I started reading The Hunger Games last week.  I wasn't sure what I would think of them after hearing the story line, but I haven't been able to put it down.  I finished the first book.  I need to go buy the second one soon.  I'm excited about the movie coming out next month.

• I took Emily to her first dentist appointment on Wednesday.  I really had no idea what to expect.  I had been talking about it all week to her. . .trying to make it sound fun.  She did better than I expected.  She had no problems opening her mouth for the dentist to look in her mouth.  They didn't do a cleaning since they didn't think she would sit still enough for that, but they said her teeth look great.  I'm glad we at least started getting her in the routine of going.  Oh and she loved the office, with all the toys in it.  I'm pretty sure she could have stayed all day and been very happy just playing.

• Here are a few pics from school from Monday.  One of Em's friends, Scarlett, had a party at school this week for her birthday and her mom emailed these to me. We're sad we can't make it to her birthday party this weekend - but we'll be celebrating someone else's birthday instead.  :)

• And just because this makes me so happy . . . it's supposed to be in the 80's today!  I'm not ready for the super hot summer, but this definitely makes me ready for springtime!!

23 Weeks

•How far along are you? 23 Weeks

•How big is baby?:   He's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango).

•Maternity clothes: I've made the switch over to all maternity pants now.  I'm still able to wear a combo of maternity and non-maternity shirts though.

•Gender: BOY!! Evan Michael Baxter.

•Sleep?:I'm still sleeping pretty well. My pillow definitely seems to be helping even more as I get bigger.

•Best moment this week?: Date night with Shawn on Sat. night and seeing Shawn feel Evan kick for the first time.

•Movement?: Tons of movement - although it comes in spurts.  I'm starting to learn his sleep patterns.  Shawn finally was able to feel Evan kick!!!  He also kicks hard enough now that I can see my stomach move on the outside.

•Food cravings?: Bananas and because we have them in the house, Girl Scout cookies.  :)

•Food aversions?: Plain grilled chicken

•What I miss: Maybe just being able to easily get up and down on the floor to play with Em.  But other than that, just trying to enjoy this pregnancy!

•Symptoms: My back has started hurting when I'm on my feet for a while and carrying Emily has started to get more difficult because of my belly. 

•Milestone: My due date was exactly 4 months from this past Sunday!  Oh my!

We're making big progress on brother's room. We've almost got it cleaned out (with the exception of baby stuff) and we ordered baby brother's furniture on Saturday! I'm a bit disappointed though because we originally had ordered a curved top crib only to get a call today that it's been discontinued and there are none in stock in the color I want.  So unfortunatley, I had to go with the flat top crib.  While it's not my first choice, I'm still happy with it.  In addition to the crib we got a dresser and hutch, nightstand and the full bed conversion rails.  We also picked out paint for his room. We've decided to just paint it all 1 color (a pale blue), but I'm still debating whether or not I want Shawn to put up a chair rail or not.

In Emily news. . .we ordered her full size mattress this past weekend and also ordered a mirror to attach to her dresser (we spent a lot of money on furniture last weekend!!).  The mattress is in stock, so we're able to pick it up whenever.  However, I still need to get her bedding, so I'm thinking we may hold off just a little bit before picking up the mattress.  I need to be mentally prepared before we start the transition over to her big girl bed. 

Emily wanted to be part of the pictures again tonight.  So here are her belly pics.

 And then Shawn decided to play "airplane" with her.

She even let Daddy fly.

While Mommy's Away. . .

Daddy and Em will play!  Last Sunday I met my friend Courtney at the movies to see The Vow (it was really cute!) while Shawn stayed home with Em.  He told me they played lots of dress up while I was gone, but I just discovered the pictures a few days later.  Looks like Em had lots of fun!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Shawn surprised me and Em with lots of little treats today.  This morning we woke up to cards and roses.  Em's card played a special song.  She loved it!

This afternoon was Em's class Valentine's Day party. Shawn left work early and went up to school to surprise Em for the party.  After the party, Shawn took her on a Daddy / Daughter date to get cupcakes.

After dinner he had even more treats waiting for us.  Cake balls for him and Em and a banana cupcake for me.  Yum!

Shawn and I are going to celebrate Valentine's Day on Saturday night.  We're having a date night. 

22 Weeks

Whoa, that's a BIG belly!!  I think I need to stop taking these pics right after we eat dinner.

•How far along are you? 22 Weeks

•How big is baby?: At 11 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash) and almost 1 pound, your baby is starting to look like a miniature newborn

•Maternity clothes: I'd say it's a good mix now. I still prefer to wear my non-maternity pants to work.  My maternity pants still look huge on me!  The clothes in this pic are all non-maternity clothes. 

•Gender: BOY!! Evan Michael Baxter. Em is finally starting to accept she's having a brother.  She will point to my stomach and say Baby Evan.  Tonight I gave her a sticker and she came and put in on my tummy and said it was for baby Evan.  :)

•Sleep?: I've been sleeping pretty well this week although Em has been waking up once in the middle of the night several nights this week.  Hoping that doesn't last long.

•Best moment this week?: Picking out baby brother's bedding!  We went the custom route again.  It should be here in 6-8 weeks!  I'm waiting for fabric swatches to be mailed to me and then we'll decide how to paint the room.  We're going with blue, brown and off-white.  We're planning on ordering his furniture on Saturday.  I think I have the set that I want picked out, I just need to see it in the store to confirm I like it.

•Movement?: Still not consistent movement, but the kicks continue to get harder.

•Food cravings?: Bananas or anything with bananas

•Food aversions?: Nothing really.

•What I miss: Nothing really.

•Symptoms: Nothing really this week.  Just that it's definitely getting harder to get up off the floor after playing with Em.  I'm thinking I'm going to reach that uncomfortable point much earlier in this pregnancy.

•Milestone: Only about 125 days to go!  I know I say this all the time, but I really can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going.  I feel like we still have so much left to do before he gets here! 

And just for some comparison, here's a pic of when I was 22 weeks preggo with Em.  This pic isn't the best angle, but trust me when I say the belly is much bigger this time around!

In Em news, I've been tempting Em to use the potty by telling her she could wear her big girl panties for a little bit this past weekend.  Well as soon as I put them on her, she told me she wanted her diaper back on.  I guess they just feel different and she didn't like it?  I decided I'm not going to push them until school requests we start sending her in them.

Also, we originally had planned to put Em in a toddler bed if we found out we were having a boy.  But after realizing we didn't order the toddler conversion set and looking at the cost of ordering it, we decided to just skip that step and go straight to the full size bed (we did buy that conversion set).  So not only are we trying to get baby brother's room together, I'm also trying to plan Em's big girl room.   We're going to order her mattress when we order baby brother's furniture.  We're also hoping to order her a mirror to go above her dresser.  There are a few that match her furniture set.  I'm trying to find bedding that will go with her current color scheme so Shawn doesn't have 2 rooms to paint.   I found one at PBK that I think I'm going to go with.  The sheet set was on sale so I went ahead and ordered it last weekend.  I'm hoping the quilt and shams might go on sale too.  I saw the bedding in the store and I liked it even better than online.  It would add purple and blue to her pink and green room. 

Valentine's Day Surprises

Since Valentine's Day falls during the week this year, we decided to give Em her V-day surprises the night before because Mommy may have gotten her an outfit that needed to be put on the next morning. :) 

School Pics

Emily's school started a facebook page so now I get to see pics of Em during the day.  I had to go grab a few pics off of their page to post.  I love getting to see what they do during the day and I get so excited when I see a new picture of her pop up on their page!!

Each Friday is cookie day.  When you pick them up at the end of the day they get a chocolate chip cookie.  Emily always knows when it's cookie Friday!!  Apparently last Friday Em got to "test" out the cookies early.

This is Em and her friend Lainey from her class.  Aren't they the cutest?

Shopping For Boys Can Be Fun

So I know everyone says shopping for girls is way more fun, but I'm finding that shopping for boys is fun too!  I'll admit it, I have to search harder to find boy clothes that I like and the selection isn't nearly as big.  And in most stores I go into, I usually end up in the girl section looking for clothes for Em too just because they are so cute.  But so far I've found some cute clothes for Evan. 

After looking at my purchases, it seems I like baby boys in blue stripes.  :)  I for see lots of blue stripes in his future. 

Oh and don't worry, big sister didn't get left out.  She came home with a blue striped dress.  Who says just because you have a boy and a girl that you can't coordinate them.  :)

And just because I thought it was funny, here was mine and Shawn's email conversation this afternoon:

Me :  Evan got a couple more blue striped outfits today.  And I didn't leave Em out. . .she got a blue striped dress.  I figured I couldn't pass up Polo outfits at TJ Maxx for $12.99 each.
Shawn: You're enjoying what I am now labeling as the "gathering phase."
Me:  Haha. . .yes.  I'm enjoying the "gathering phase."  Can't wait to show you them.  Boy clothes can be fun!
Shawn:  You should practice on me some time.
Me:  Haha.  Let me rephrase. . .little boy clothes are fun.  :)


My mom and I are going shopping on Saturday to start looking at bedding ideas.  I can't wait!  Now that we know the gender I feel like we need to get moving on getting his room all put together.  After all, I only have 19 more weeks (at most) until he's here!  Wow!

21 Weeks

•How far along are you? 21 Weeks!

•How big is baby?: Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long — the length of a carrot.

•Maternity clothes: I'd say it's a good mix now.  I can still get away with my regular work pants though. (just with belly bands).

•Gender: BOY!!  Evan Michael Baxter.  Although if you ask Em, she will tell you she's having a baby sister.  I think she's in denial.  :)  Here's a text message from Em's teacher after she heard we were having a boy.

•Sleep?: I've been sleeping pretty well this week.

•Best moment this week?: Definitely finding out the gender!  It's nice to put a name to all these kicks now.  :)

•Movement?: Still not consistent movement, but the kicks continue to get harder.

•Food cravings?: Bananas or anything with bananas

•Food aversions?: Nothing really.

•What I miss: Nothing really.

•Symptoms: Still the bad allergies. Also, it's definitely getting harder to get up off the floor after playing with Em.

•Milestone: I'm on the down slope now!  I know I say this every week, but seriously, I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going!!

Just as a side note. . .After my sono last week, I got a call from my dr. that the baby's kidneys looked dilated.  She said it should hopefully fix itself before he arrives, but they want to monitor it.  I'll have another sono at 24 weeks to look at them again. I'm hoping it's fixed by then, so I don't have to continue to worry about it.  My dr. didn't seem too concerned at this point, so I'm trying not to worry too much.


In Em news, she went poo-poo in the potty tonight!  Yay!  When she first started using the potty she would poo in the potty, but the last couple of months she has been back to going in her diaper and only peeing in the potty.  I'm hoping this continues!!  I think showing her, her big girl panties that I got her is some good motivation.  She really wants to start wearing them.

And tonight Daddy built Em a princess castle and the 2 of them played in it.  It started out as a pirate ship (Em came up with that), but quickly turned into a princess castle.